Instacart · 17 hours ago
Machine Learning Engineer, PhD Intern
United States
Internship
Remote
InternInstacart is transforming the grocery industry by making grocery delivery convenient and accessible to everyone. They are seeking talented Ph.D. students to join their fast-moving machine learning teams and work on high-impact problems at the intersection of LLM research, large-scale ML systems, and real-world e-commerce applications.
Delivery ServiceE-CommerceGroceryShopping
Responsibilities
Using cutting-edge AI and LLM-based techniques to understand user intent, refine queries, and support downstream retrieval and ranking
Improving search relevance by incorporating signals from user behavior, catalog knowledge, and generative models, including hybrid retrieval and ranking systems
Pushing the boundaries of where generative and traditional models intersect across retrieval and ranking systems; developing scalable feedback and reward modeling approaches for closed-loop learning (RFT)
Building LLM-based evaluation frameworks (e.g., LLM-as-a-Judge, self-critique) to improve the quality and reliability of generative and agentic systems
Researching techniques to deploy LLMs in high-traffic, latency-sensitive production environments, balancing quality, cost, and latency through cascading, distillation, and selective generation
Working on graph data management and knowledge discovery over one of the world’s largest grocery catalogs, and integrating structured knowledge with LLM-based reasoning and natural language interfaces
Building temporal models for user behavior prediction
Qualification
Required
Ph.D. student in computer science, mathematics, statistics, economics, or related areas
Strong programming (Python, Golang) and algorithmic skills
Solid foundations in machine learning, algorithms, or optimization
Curious, self-motivated, and comfortable working on open-ended problems
Preferred
Ph.D. student at a top tier university in the United States
Hands-on experience with generative or traditional modeling frameworks (PyTorch, Tensorflow, vLLM)
Prior industry or research internship in machine learning or AI
Interest and experience in translating research ideas into scalable production systems
Company
Instacart
Instacart is an online grocery platform that offers same-day delivery and pickup services for retailers and consumers.
Founded in 2012
1001-5000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Instacart has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (156)
2024 (173)
2023 (111)
2022 (159)
2021 (170)
2020 (59)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$2.92BKey Investors
T. Rowe PriceTiger Global ManagementD1 Capital Partners
2023-09-19IPO
2021-11-01Private Equity· $232M
2021-09-05Secondary Market
Leadership Team
Chris Rogers
Chief Executive Officer
Brandon Leonardo
Co-Founder
Recent News
The Journal Record
2026-01-18
2026-01-16
Company data provided by crunchbase